When Alecsandra Puflea, 22, arrived to check into her pre-paid room at a Holiday Inn Express in the U.K., she was promptly rejected due to the staff’s beliefs that Romanian women are prostitutes. The Mirror reports that when Puflea arrived at the check-in desk earlier this month, she was told, “I’m sorry, but we don’t accept Romanians.” Puflea said, “It was an awful experience and quite shocking. He took one look at my ID and said that I could not stay in the hotel … because I was from Romania.” Puflea alerted local police who found that the hotel introduced a new screening policy after women from Romania had used the hotel rooms for prostitution. Holiday Inn Express released a statement to “apologize unreservedly,” but the hotel chain maintained that the booking “was absolutely not refused on racial grounds.” Holiday Inn Express attributed the incident to a booking misunderstanding. Local police are working with the general manager of the hotel to review the hotel’s policy.